Machine for making hydraulic works basket for river, mountain, and sea defenses



July 1, 1958 M. ROSS! 2,841,188

MACHINE FOR MAKING HYDRAULIC WORKS BASKET FOR. RIVER, MOUNTAIN AND SEA DEFENSES Filed May 20.1953

irww a z MACHINE FOR MAKING HYDRAULIC WORKS BASKET FOR RIVER, MOUNTAIN, AND SEA DEFENSES Mario Rossi, Bologna, Italy, assignor to S. p. A. Oflicine Maccaferri gia Ratfaele Maccaferri & Figli, Bologna, Italy Application May 20, 1953, Serial No. 356,263

4 Claims. (Cl. 140-24) This invention relates to baskets or gabions made from wire cloth of any type of which the wire is protected against oxidation, said baskets or gabions being filled with ballast, chips, rubble stones or similar material available at the place of use or in proximity thereof, for river, mountain and sea defensive structure.

The invention concerns more particularly the basket or gabion structure, the manner of forming the basket, protecting means for the wire more particularly when the basket is used for defensive work in the sea and, finally, the manner of interconnecting the baskets for erecting the structure.

The cage according to this invention can advantageously replace any restraining, damming and deflection masonry made of bricks, stones or concrete. Although the basket units or gabionades are of high specific weight, which implies a considerable static strength, they undergo deformation without collapsing, while this is unavoidable in masonry when an even slight settling of the footbase or a powerful thrust thereagainst occurs.

The suitably positioned baskets cannot be removed by the waters because, even if the vehemence of the waters should succeed in overturning and undermining them, they would not follow the stream, but would sink on the spot, thereby forming a strong foundation base on which further baskets for re-establishing the defense could advantageously be laid.

The baskets according to this invention are very inexpensive, because they are mostly filled with ballast collected at the place of erection. Even if quarried material is used, the baskets are still much less expensive than masonry.

The laying of the baskets for a strong embankment can be carried out in widely ditferent manners according to the kind of work contemplated. Experts can always perform the task with excellent results whether the work is of the rock or repellent type or for lining slopes.

The baskets according to this invention, are of a prismatic shape and can be closely juxtaposed in erection, eliminating any interstices, this resulting in a compact, solid and durable protection. The further serious drawback of the unorderly sinking of the component parts into the water by the action of temporary whirls during floods is further avoided.

The baskets are usefully employed for manufacturing filtering dams for restraining and deflecting purposes, erecting embankments on sliding clay containing slopes and, generally, in all supporting or defensive structures, in which the structure should not be stiff but capable of following by a certain extent displacements of the ground on which it rests.

According to a preferred embodiment of this invention, the parallelepipedic baskets are provided, according to their intended position in the structure, with one or more flanges adapted to form the face of one or more adjacent baskets, in order to avoid contact between two wire cloth faces of adjacent baskets. Should this occur the respective basket will be deprived according to this invention of nited States Patent F V 2,841,188 Patented July 1, 1958 the particular wire cloth face in its prismatic structure, which would be replaced in erection by the flange of the contiguous basket, the flange advantageously conmeeting together adjacent baskets. This arrangement results in a considerable reduction in cost of erection.

According to this invention, the sides of the wire cloth faces forming the cage are formed by rods, braids or wire, the wire being as a rule thicker than the cloth wire and being referred to as selvedge.

Before the prismatic basket casing formed is filled with rubble stone or the like, connections are effected by means of wire braces arranged between the side walls and diagonally between the corners.

In the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of amachine in accordance with the invention, and

Fig. 2 is a plan View, partly in section, of the machine of Fig. 1 turned through an angle of Referring to the machine shown in Figs. 1 and 2, 1 denotes a set of coaxial gears, provided with hubs 2 projecting on both faces, seated in supports 3 interposed between the gears 2. The gears are formed with a radial slit 4 (Fig. 1) the supports 3 being provided with matching slits 5 of the same width.

The gears 1 are further formed with radial holes 6, aligned with the slits 4 and provided with a flared opening 6a for facilitating introduction into the holes of the ends C of the edge wires of the wire cloth R, as the edge of the latter is pushed down into the slits 4 and 5 as shown.'

The gears 1 each mesh with a cooperating gear 7, the

set of gears 7 being keyed to a motor shaft 8.

Tight twisting of the ends C of the wire cloth about the selvedge V is performed throughout the cloth in the following manner.

The sets of gears 1 and 7 are arranged to bring the slits 4 opposite the slits 5 cut in the supports 3. The edge of the cloth R is then pushed down into the slits 4 and 5, causing the ends C of the wires to enter the radial hoies 6 in the gears 1. Moreover, the selvedge V is arranged on the axis of the gears 1 underneath the cloth R (Fig. 1).

On rotating the gears 1 through the gears 7 actuated by the driving shaft 8, the ends C of the cloth wires are simultaneously twisted about the selvedge V and tightly clamped thereto, as shown.

The machine according to this invention is conveniently designed for arrangement therein of as may pairs of gears l, 7 as there are end wires in the cloth to be simultaneously twisted about the selvedge.

In order to adjust the machine for twisting about a selvedge wire cloths or lattices having meshes of various size, the supports 3 are detachably and adjustably secured to the machine base. Thus sets of gears 1 of various axial width may be inserted between said supports in order to suit the machine to the kind of wire cloth to be treated.

It will be seen from the drawing that the members 3 are formed at their lower portion with dovetailed enlargements 9 capable of sliding in a correspondingly shaped slot 10 cut in the bedplate 11.

The eccentric shaft 12 extends almost throughout the length of the groove 10 and is supported at its ends by the pivots 13, one of which is fast with the operating lever 14, said pivots being supported by the bedplate on its opposite sides. By rocking the lever 14 it is possible to lock and unlock the portions 9 fast with the members 3 with respect to the frame 11. A recess 15 is provided at the bottom of the groove 10 to permit rotation of the eccentric 12.

According to this invention, the iron wires of the cloth are protected by a thorough zinc-plating, which proved in the tests carried out to possess a resistance largely sufiicient for structures of a permanent character.

However, zinc-plating affords an insufficient protection in sea water or in waters having an acid or even an alkaline action.

According to this invention, permanent structures can also be carried out under these circumstances with the baskets described, by making the latter of wire coated with plastic substances, such as vinyl plastics, or by coating the wire cloth elements forming the baskets with the said plastic substances, such as by dipping into the fluidized plastic substances, or by performing both protecting treatments.

According to a preferred embodiment of this invention, the iron wire is coated with plastics by extrusion or drawing, whereby the coating satisfactorily adheres to the wire.

The coating is, for instance, 2/ millimeters thick; the plastic substance should be admixed with a quantity of plasticizer sufiicient to make the coating flexible and prevent cracking thereof, more particularly in simple, double or triple twist cloth, in which the wire is twisted by bending it about a very small radius of curvature.

The above descirbed process safely avoids any cracking of the iron wire coating in manufacture of the cloth and attachment of the selvedge or marginal rods by tight twisting of the ends of the coated wires.

The baskets made from wire protected in the above indicated manner fully solve the problem of defending the seacoast, permitting manufacture of adequate structures, less expensive than masonry and not subject to the latters unavoidable cracking and consequent collapsing, by virtue of the flexibility of the cages, the coating of plastic substance on the wire and basket cloth made therefrom making the baskets or gabions unattackable by sea water and assuring a long life thereof.

What I claim is:

1. A machine for simultaneously twisting the marginal portion of a metallic lattice with hexagonal meshes about a rod or wire extending along said marginal portion, com prising, in combination, a base, a number of equal coaxially arranged equidistant rotary bodies each having a transverse slot extending across the axis of said body and a radially extending bore communicating with the slot, intermediate slotted fixed bodies secured to the opposed sides, said slots in said fixed bodies being all aligned and extending across the axes of said rotary bodies, means being provided for revolving simultaneously said rotary bodies and keeping their slots constantly aligned.

. machine frame for supporting said rotary bodies at their 2. A machine for simultaneously twisting the marginal portion of a metallic lattice with hexagonal meshes about a rod or wire extending along said marginal portion, comprising, in combination, a base, a number of equal coaxially arranged equidistant toothed gears each provided at its opposed sides with coaxial cylindrical hubs and having a transverse slot extending across the axis of said gear and a radially extending bore communicating with the slot, intermediate slotted fixed bodies secured to the machine frame each having at its opposite sides facing said gears cylindrical holes for receiving the hubs of said gears and rotatably supporting them, said slots in said fixed bodies being all aligned and extending across the axes of said gears, means being provided for revolving simultaneously said gears and keeping their slots constantly aligned.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said intermediate slotted bodies are displaceable on the machine base in the direction of the common axis of said rotary bodies, means being provided for securing said intermediate bodies in a selected position.

4. A machine for simultaneously twisting the marginal portion of a metallic lattice with hexagonal meshes about a rod or wire extending along said marginal portion, comprising, in combination, a base, a number of equal coaxially arranged equidistant toothed gears, each provided at its opposite sides with coaxial cylindrical hubs and having a transverse slot extending across the axis of said gear, intermediate slotted fixed bodies secured to the machine frame, each having at its opposite sides facing said gears cylindrical holes for receiving the hubs of said gears and rotatably supporting them, said slots in said fixed bodies being all aligned and extending across the axes of said gears, means being provided for revolving simultaneously said gears and keeping their slots constantly aligned, each of the slotted gears being provided with a radially extending bore situated in the middle plane of said gear, aligned with the slot and-merging into the slot bottom through a flared portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 516,803 Ferris Mar. 20, 1894 518,426 Randall Apr. 17, 1894 599,976 Shellaberger Mar. 1, 1898 837,484 MacCaferri Dec. 4, 1906 1,047,464 Tirapani Dec. 17, 1912 2,684,694 Stoeckel July 27, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 15,197 Great Britain 1901 

